Editor's note: On August 10, 2019, Jeffrey Epstein died in an apparent jailhouse suicide. For more information, see The Daily Beast's reporting here.
Jeffrey Epstein is already trying to get out of jail.
The accused sex trafficker filed papers Tuesday stating that he intends to appeal a judge’s decision to keep him locked up until trial.
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U.S. District Judge Richard Berman last week shot down Epstein’s request to be put on house arrest, writing that he was a clear flight risk who was likely to prey on young women if he was released.
“Mr. Epstein’s alleged excessive attraction to sexual conduct with or in the presence of minor girls—which is said to include his soliciting and receiving massages from young girls and young women perhaps as many as four times a day—appears likely to be uncontrollable,” Berman wrote.
“It seems fair to say that Mr. Epstein’s future behavior will be consistent with past behavior, including the trove of ‘lewd photographs of young-looking women or girls,’ which were recently uncovered during the July 6-7, 2019, search of Mr. Epstein’s East 71st Street mansion,” the judge added.
Epstein—who is worth $559 million, according to his financial filings with the court—offered to put up a massive bond secured by his brother Mark Epstein’s house, wear an ankle monitor, hire armed guards, install surveillance cameras, and open his Manhattan mansion to a live-in “trustee.”
Federal prosecutors and the judge agreed that all that was not enough to ensure that Epstein would not flee or break the law.
As The Daily Beast reported last week, a lawyer representing Epstein accusers publicly claimed that when the financier was serving 13 months on work release in Florida a decade ago, he was using his time away from jail to abuse girls and young women.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has now opened an investigation into whether Epstein was allowed to skirt the rules. A freedom of information request by Daily Beast contributor Thomas Volscho yielded work-release logs that contain inconsistencies and other red flags.
